The American Himalayan Foundation brings shelter, safety, education, health, and opportunity to people across the Himalaya.

Working With Heart

We take care of people in the Himalaya who are in need and have no one else. How? By opening doors to education and health care. By building stronger communities and developing lasting, trusting partnerships. By working in a way that respects both tradition and innovation. By giving people opportunity and hope, so they can look to the future.

Every year, thousands of girls from the poorest parts of rural Nepal are trafficked: coerced or tricked with false promises, then sold into brothels, indentured servitude, or forced into child marriage. The way we prevent this modern-day slavery is surprisingly simple and effective.

Nothing looks as squarely toward the future as education. For Tibetan refugees, Sherpas, Lobas in Mustang, village girls—for any child facing daunting odds because of caste, gender, disability or poverty—education offers a path forward to opportunity and hope.

For many across the Himalaya, healthcare is unaffordable and out of reach. We build and support health clinics, fund health workers and supply medicines to bring care to poor, off-the-grid communities—life-changing and often life-saving for those who are too poor or live too far from a good doctor.

Our roots are in the Everest area and, in the shadow of the world’s highest peaks, AHF has accomplished much over the past three decades. Today, we continue to improve education for Sherpa children, rebuild after the earthquakes, and look for solutions to new challenges in this rapidly changing community.

After half a century or more in exile, most Tibetan refugees are still struggling to survive. And for those who remained in Tibet, home has become an increasingly difficult and uncertain place. We do what's needed to help Tibetans improve their quality of life and hold on to their culture.

In the once forbidden kingdom of Mustang, isolation had left the people impoverished, traditions faded, and ancient temples a shadow of what they once were. We were asked, surprisingly, to first work on the temples and monastic schools—to restore the soul of the place. It sparked a renaissance.